Do I need to express milk after feeding?

Once all pediatricians and obstetricians asserted that a nursing mother should, after each feeding of the infant, express the mammary gland to the last drop. What has changed in our day? Is it worth it for a nursing mother to decant or is it better to forget about such a procedure?

The answer can not be unambiguous, since the situations with feeding are different. And regular pumping has both advantages and disadvantages.

• Squeezing helps mom maintain lactation away from the child, for example, if mom went to school, went to the hospital, started working.
• Thanks to getting expressed milk, you can feed your mother’s milk through a tube to babies who were born prematurely or stay in the hospital.
• Squeezing helps to alleviate the condition of the nursing mother, if milk has come in a lot and there is stagnation (this often happens during the formation of lactation). In this case, the mammary glands need podtsezhivat only slightly to eliminate painful overcrowding.
• Mom will have to express milk during the period when she is sick and is taking medications that go into breast milk.
• If the baby is not gaining weight well, decanting after feeding can be an additional incentive to increase lactation.

• Although earlier, doctors recommended decanting for the prevention of stagnation of milk and mastitis, but it is precisely decantation that is one of the provoking factors for these conditions.
• Opportunity to get to the vicious circle: too much milk will be produced due to the large amount of pumping. To remove the heaviness in the chest, the mother will be forced to constantly decant.
• Mom gets tired from pumping and starts counting breast-feeding unpleasant and difficult process.

When the mother gives the baby breast on demand, the baby sucks the portion of milk he needs. Sucking stimulates production for the next feeding exactly as much milk as a child ate.

If the baby’s appetite has increased, and the breast was empty, greedy sucking will be the reason for developing more breast nutrition for subsequent feeding. If the baby has eaten less and part of the nutrition has remained in the breast, the production of milk for the next feeding will not be as active.

Breastfeeding moms are recommended to express themselves in the following situations:

• Separation of mother and child, if a woman wants to keep lactation.
• A weakened or premature baby cannot suck the right amount of milk to stimulate lactation.
• Resume breastfeeding after a break.
• Mom leaves for work if the child is less than 8-9 months old.
• Milk stasis to remove overcrowding.

The amount of human milk that can be obtained by pumping may vary at different times:

• Squeezing "to the last drop" is recommended for mothers who want to maximize lactation stimulation.
• If a mother makes a supply of milk for the future, she needs to try to express as much milk as the baby needs for one feeding.
• When stagnation is recommended to express a small amount of milk, only to alleviate the condition and relieve breast tension.

The previous recommendations for breastfeeding of all women after each feeding the babies are not supported by pediatricians. This was once explained by the need to constantly stimulate lactation. However, if breastfeeding is adjusted correctly, the female breast does not need additional stimulation in addition to attachments of the baby. Decantation only increases the "request" for milk production, which may be of disservice (cause lactostasis or even mastitis).